Stock Market & Financial Investment News

U.S. can do little to get gas to Europe in short-term, NY Times saysAlthough U.S. politicians are talking about exporting gas to Europe to reduce the continent's dependency on Russia, America can export little gas to Europe in the short-term, according to The New York Times. Moreover, a facility being built by Cheniere Energy (LNG) is the only plant that has received all of the regulatory approvals necessary to export natural gas, and in 2017 it will only be able to handle one-sixth of the total amount of gas exported by Russia to Europe, the newspaper added. Companies that are looking to export natural gas from the U.S. other than Cheniere include Sempra (SRE), Dominion (D), BG Group (BRGYY), and Southern Union, which is jointly owned by Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) and Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). Gazprom (OGZPY) is Russia's largest natural gas exporter. Reference Link

SDG&E authorized to use UAS throughout territory by FAAThe Federal Aviation Administration has granted San Diego Gas & Electric a Section 333 approval for Unmanned Aircraft Systems, or UAS, allowing the utility to conduct aerial inspections of its electric and gas facilities, including emergency response damage assessments throughout its service territory. SDG&E is the second utility in the nation to be granted the Section 333 approval. SDG&E plans to use UASs in several situations which provide a variety of key benefits. In addition to locating the cause of power outages, the UASs improve situational awareness during emergencies through monitoring of fires; and will achieve cost savings, noise reductions and environmental protection by reducing the use of helicopters and other heavy machinery. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy.